different between accusative vs unaccusative

English

Etymology

First attested in the mid 15th century. From Middle English accusative, from Anglo-Norman accusatif or Middle French acusatif or from Latin acc?s?t?vus (“having been blamed”), from acc?s? (“to blame”). Equivalent to accuse +? -ative. The Latin form is a mistranslation of the Ancient Greek grammatical term ????????? (aiti?tik?, “expressing an effect”). This term actually comes from ???????? (aiti?tós, “caused”) +? -???? (-ikós, adjective suffix), but was reanalyzed as coming from ?????- (aiti?-), the stem of the verb ????????? (aitiáomai, “to blame”), + -????? (-tikós, verbal adjective suffix).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??kju?z?t?v/
• (US) enPR: ?k?'z?t?v, IPA^(key): /??kjuz?t?v/
• Hyphenation: ac?cusa?tive

Adjective

accusative (comparative more accusative, superlative most accusative)

1. Producing accusations; in a manner that reflects a finding of fault or blame

   Synonyms: accusatory, accusatorial

   • 22 November, 1641, Edward Dering, a speech

     This hath been a very accusative age.

2. (grammar) Applied to the case (as the fourth case of Latin, Lithuanian and Greek nouns) which expresses the immediate object on which the action or influence of a transitive verb has its limited influence. Other parts of speech, including secondary or predicate direct objects, will also influence a sentence’s construction. In German the case used for direct objects.

Translations

Noun

accusative (plural accusatives)

1. (grammar) The accusative case.

Synonyms

• (accusative case): acc., A.

Translations

French

Adjective

accusative

1. feminine singular of accusatif

Latin

Noun

acc?s?t?ve

1. vocative singular of acc?s?t?vus

English

Etymology

un- +? accusative, from the fact that in a nominative-accusative language, the accusative case, which marks the direct object of a transitive verb, typically marks the non-volitional role. In unaccusative verbs, the non-volitional arguments do not take the accusative case.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /??n??kju?z?t?v/

Adjective

unaccusative (not comparable)

1. (linguistics, of a verb) Intransitive and having an experiencer as its subject, that is, the (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent.

Antonyms

• unergative
• transitive

Hyponyms

• intransitive

Related terms

• accusative

Noun

unaccusative (plural unaccusatives)

1. (linguistics) An unaccusative verb.
   • 1998, Eloise Jelinek, Voice and Transitivity as Functional Projections in Yaqui, in Miriam Butt and Wilhelm Geuder, eds., “The Projection of Arguments”

     We have seen that Unergatives and Unaccusatives differ in 1) permitting the derivation of an Impersonal Passive, and 2) in licensing purpose clauses, since Unergatives have active subjects, and Unaccusatives do not.

Antonyms

• unergative

References

• “unaccusative verb” in the Lexicon of Linguistics (Utrecht institute of Linguistics)